Any thoughts on the Celestron Luminos 15mm?

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

I am looking for a 1.25" EP in the range of 13-16mm (mainly for solar, and lightweight travel package), when the Luminos specs caught my eye: 15mm focal length, 17mm eye relief, 340 g weight. At 119 euros this seems a steal, if the performance is OK. Has anybody tried these?

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

I have been digging around a bit, and I am getting very mixed messages. Some people like it a lot, others say several Luminos EP have issues with glare, halos and ghosting (especially on planets). The general trend seems to be: Fine for DSOs, not so good for planets. This would practically rule out their use in solar as well. Does anybody have information to the contrary?

[rowan46]

I was looking at those some a while ago and came across the same dearth of info except in the american forums the other attribute that came up was the qc was a bit variable a few people had bits inside their eyepices. This was a while ago and things may have improved

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

I was looking at those some a while ago and came across the same dearth of info except in the american forums the other attribute that came up was the qc was a bit variable a few people had bits inside their eyepices. This was a while ago and things may have improved

Thanks for the info, I had not yet found that, but I think I will pass (unless I get a chance to inspect one for myself). Maybe the Radian 14mm is the one to go for (there is a discount after all)

[Damo636]

I had a 14 Radian for a time Michael and its a really nice eyepiece! Its a pity the 16mm Uwan/Nirvana has only 12mm of eye relief, it would have been another excellent canditate if it weren't for that.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

I had a 14 Radian for a time Michael and its a really nice eyepiece! Its a pity the 16mm Uwan/Nirvana has only 12mm of eye relief, it would have been another excellent canditate if it weren't for that.

Cheers, Damo. I had a few Radian EPs and really liked them, but they were bested by my Pentax EPs. I'd get an XW14 but they are not cheap. With the current discount on Delos EPs (and the teensy 2^o extra FOV) the Delos is by far the better option.

[alan potts]

I used to have a 14mm Radian on loan, (about 6 months) it is a very nice eyepiece, I tend to think it is the forgotten range from the TeleVue camp, in my books under-rated. Just about every time you saw something written about the Radian someone was banging on about colour cast, so-what, there is more to eyepiece than that..

Alan.

[Rustysplit]

I am over the moon with my 18mm Radian. TBH, I do not notice the colour cast, the lovely contrasty views are what makes it for me.

[Naemeth]

I used to have a 14mm Radian on loan, (about 6 months) it is a very nice eyepiece, I tend to think it is the forgotten range from the TeleVue camp, in my books under-rated. Just about every time you saw something written about the Radian someone was banging on about colour cast, so-what, there is more to eyepiece than that..

Alan.

I'm of the same opinion with the Vixen LVs, which perform to about 99% (or perhaps the same quality) of the standard of a TeleVue Plössl even at F/5. The only difference is ocassionally the LV can have a slight hint of lateral colour right at the edges, but no deterioration in sharpness or contrast, the colour cast is rather warm too (but then I actually like that). The Radian and LV would both be good, but I know you've already had some LVs Michael and replaced them with Radians, so I'm unsure as to whether you would go back to an LV.

HTH

[jetstream]

I use the 10mm Luminos and it is my goto eyepiece at its magnification in my f7 refractor.This eyepiece is optically excellent,the other night on m51 I saw 3 faint stars right around the galaxy.They have big field stop diameters for their class,great field of view. My scope at times does seem to have glare & scatter(as I discussed in another post) but so do my Televues-in my case I think the sky conditions contribute to this greatly.At 63 power the 10mm luminos "oblongs" the double double stars,not quite splitting them but close,Saturn the other night was really yellow in this and the other eyepieces,I have seen 5 of Saturns moons with the 10mm and the Moon is stunning with it.I see no optical abberations with this eyepiece in the 90mm refractor but in a fast Newtonian who knows.I'll be finding out shortly.It does seem to have a "cooler" tone than the Televues and I like different looks in different eyepieces anyway.Best thing would be to try one out if possible,I am very happy with both the 23mm & 10mm,but as I'm new to the sport my comparison experience is limited.Personally I think they are criticized too much.

[cs1cjc]

The 16mm ES68* gives very good views and is compact and lightweight (about 160g) so good for travel. For me its only fault is that it is a little short of eye relief.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

The 16mm ES68* gives very good views and is compact and lightweight (about 160g) so good for travel. For me its only fault is that it is a little short of eye relief.

I was looking at that as well (having just got the 24mm), but the 11mm eye relief is a definite no-no for me.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

I use the 10mm Luminos and it is my goto eyepiece at its magnification in my f7 refractor.This eyepiece is optically excellent,the other night on m51 I saw 3 faint stars right around the galaxy.They have big field stop diameters for their class,great field of view. My scope at times does seem to have glare & scatter(as I discussed in another post) but so do my Televues-in my case I think the sky conditions contribute to this greatly.At 63 power the 10mm luminos "oblongs" the double double stars,not quite splitting them but close,Saturn the other night was really yellow in this and the other eyepieces,I have seen 5 of Saturns moons with the 10mm and the Moon is stunning with it.I see no optical abberations with this eyepiece in the 90mm refractor but in a fast Newtonian who knows.I'll be finding out shortly.It does seem to have a "cooler" tone than the Televues and I like different looks in different eyepieces anyway.Best thing would be to try one out if possible,I am very happy with both the 23mm & 10mm,but as I'm new to the sport my comparison experience is limited.Personally I think they are criticized too much.

Thanks for the information. Which televues did you compare it too?

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

I used to have a 14mm Radian on loan, (about 6 months) it is a very nice eyepiece, I tend to think it is the forgotten range from the TeleVue camp, in my books under-rated. Just about every time you saw something written about the Radian someone was banging on about colour cast, so-what, there is more to eyepiece than that..

Alan.

I had two Radians for a long time, and had a great deal of fun with them. They are underrated, and deserve more praise than they get. They are very sharp, have excellent eye relief, are comfortable to use, and have sufficient FOV for planets, next to all the SWA and UWA EPs I have. However, the XF 8.5 was just a nose ahead, and the XWs with their larger FOV bested them too. Again the differences (apart from FOV) are minimal. As I could get a pair of secondhand XWs for the price of two new Radians, what else could I choose?

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

I'm of the same opinion with the Vixen LVs, which perform to about 99% (or perhaps the same quality) of the standard of a TeleVue Plössl even at F/5. The only difference is ocassionally the LV can have a slight hint of lateral colour right at the edges, but no deterioration in sharpness or contrast, the colour cast is rather warm too (but then I actually like that). The Radian and LV would both be good, but I know you've already had some LVs Michael and replaced them with Radians, so I'm unsure as to whether you would go back to an LV.

HTH

The LVs are very nice too, but with a series of 68 and 82 deg EPs I found the 50 deg (for the 9mm) and 45 deg (for the 7mm) positively cramped. If you do not mind that on planets, they offer very much the same sharpness and viewing comfort as the Radians. One of the best views of Saturn I have ever had was with the LV7. I never liked the rubber eye-cups of the LVs, however. The NLVs even have a touch better transmission and colour neutrality than the Radians I am told (by Mr Spock).

As I said, I find the (N)LV FOV a touch cramped, but a secondhand LVW might well be worth considering.

[alan potts]

I have to say that the one eyepiece I have not seen for sale this year secondhand is the XW of any kind, I only got my 5mm by asking someone I was buying from if they had anything else they wanted rid of.

I am impressed with them I have used 4 of the range (5,7,10,14mm) all below 20mm and can't see much wrong with any of them, I have the 5mm and the 14mm, though the latter has been sold. If I could say that there was something wrong with them it would be about enough to write on the back of a postage stamp, a small one at that. I do not find them any better than Delos nore are they worse in fact apart from the they come to focus in different places you would think nothing had changed when swapping them .

It is indeed a sad shame that they are not more readly available and the range now seems to stop at 20mm, even TS seem to have stopped dealing with them . I could still fancy the 3.5mmXW in favour of the Delos though I bet there is nothing in them.

I am doing a close look at the 4.5 D and the 5mm XW at the moment and one thing I have noticed is the FOV seems to be larger in the Delos, though at only 2 degree extra I think it is more likely that it is my mind playing tricks. I have spent 6 hours at the scopes with them and still feel I need more time, thats how much alike they are.

Alan

[Naemeth]

The LVs are very nice too, but with a series of 68 and 82 deg EPs I found the 50 deg (for the 9mm) and 45 deg (for the 7mm) positively cramped. If you do not mind that on planets, they offer very much the same sharpness and viewing comfort as the Radians. One of the best views of Saturn I have ever had was with the LV7. I never liked the rubber eye-cups of the LVs, however. The NLVs even have a touch better transmission and colour neutrality than the Radians I am told (by Mr Spock).

As I said, I find the (N)LV FOV a touch cramped, but a secondhand LVW might well be worth considering.

I've actually tried an 13mm LVW on a 14" F/~10 scope (although briefly). On Jupiter, it doesn't suffer from any ghosting, and it was certainly sharp on axis (didn't get to see off-axis) - brilliant view actually. Considering the price you can get the LVW for secondhand, they are definitely worth considering, however, aren't they quite heavy?

[Mark in Macc]

Have you thought about trying one of the BSTs? I bought a 12 mm just to see what the fuss was all about and was very impressed. Certainly cheap, light and with very good eye relief.

[rowan46]

I had two Radians for a long time, and had a great deal of fun with them. They are underrated, and deserve more praise than they get. They are very sharp, have excellent eye relief, are comfortable to use, and have sufficient FOV for planets, next to all the SWA and UWA EPs I have. However, the XF 8.5 was just a nose ahead, and the XWs with their larger FOV bested them too. Again the differences (apart from FOV) are minimal. As I could get a pair of secondhand XWs for the price of two new Radians, what else could I choose?

I must admit Michael that phrase "I can pick up a couple of xw's for the price of 2 new radians" caught my attention I havent seen many xw's offered for sale 2nd user so I would love to know where you could scource a couple of them

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

I must admit Michael that phrase "I can pick up a couple of xw's for the price of 2 new radians" caught my attention I havent seen many xw's offered for sale 2nd user so I would love to know where you could scource a couple of them

This was last year. Believe me, if any come for sale again at that price I will pounce!

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Have you thought about trying one of the BSTs? I bought a 12 mm just to see what the fuss was all about and was very impressed. Certainly cheap, light and with very good eye relief.

The eye relief is way too short for those with glasses (13mm whereas 17 and above is OK, 16 is borderline, 15 and smaller annoying).

[Mark in Macc]

From what I can tell, eye relief is greater than the stated 13 mm. I may be wrong, but they are very comfortable to use. I was a bit allergic to "cheap" EPs for a couple of years, then I tried a BST.

[alan potts]

Tell you what Michael, something must have changed somewhat with the old line Axiom and the new line, look at the price difference that TS are showing on the two ranges in the two inch eyepieces, almost twice as much but look the same. I guess they are really hoping to shift the old ones at those prices. What's the story?

Alan

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Tell you what Michael, something must have changed somewhat with the old line Axiom and the new line, look at the price difference that TS are showing on the two ranges in the two inch eyepieces, almost twice as much but look the same. I guess they are really hoping to shift the old ones at those prices. What's the story?

Alan

By all accounts t hey have changed. The Luminos are consistently listed as having a larger eye relief, and this seems to be confirmed in the reports. All very welcome, but not much use to me if the quality is variable. Apart from solar work, remember that I will typically be using these in the more portable, faster scopes. Quality becomes more important

[cs1cjc]

The eye relief is way too short for those with glasses (13mm whereas 17 and above is OK, 16 is borderline, 15 and smaller annoying).

This may be a good rule of thumb, but it assumes that all those with glasses are the same when they are not. Short sight will extend the available eye relief as will a small exit pupil, large iris dilation and small AFOV. So with my (close fitting) glasses all the following are fine for me at night with a dark adapted eye, but it may not be the same for others:

Starguider 8mm

NPL 30mm and 20mm

NLV, 2.5mm 5mm and 15mm (too much eye relief if anything)

Antares Ortho 12.5mm (9mm marginal and 6mm vignetted)

TMB planetary clones (3.2mm 4mm, 6mm and 9mm)

Pentax XF 8.5mm

Hyperion 17mm and Aspheric 36mm

ES 68* 24mm (16mm marginal)

ES 82* 11mm, (8.8mm marginal, 6.7mm vignetted and 14mm, 4.7mm more so)

Quite a few of these are not usable in daylight including Starguider 8mm ES82* series and all those labelled marginal, above.